“All of this hiring is tied to the customer demand,” said Felicia Fields, Ford group vice president for human resources, when announcing the new jobs to media this week at the company's headquarters. “This growth is tied to the success that we’re seeing in the sales of our vehicles and the growth plans that we have around the world.”

Fields said more than two-thirds of the announced jobs are new positions compared to filling open positions from employees retiring or leaving the company. Fields said Ford's attrition rate is about 2.7 percent.

The salaried hiring initiative, according to Ford, is the largest since 2000, and necessary for Ford to meet “surging demand” for its new products and continue its aggressive global growth.

View full size Ford Motor Company will hire an additional 800 salaried employees for a total of more than 3,000 salaried employees in 2013. Ford

However, officials say finding the right candidates for the positions is far more challenging now then it was five to 10 years ago.

“The shift in the types of competencies and skills that we need are very different,” Fields said. “It’s not just talent, it’s the right talent.”

Fields said prior to the Great Recession and the influx of technology into vehicles, qualified applicants had to have a largely mechanical and a little bit of electrical background. Now, Ford wants new employees to be skilled in a variety of fields, including but not limited to software programming and STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) disciplines.

To try and attract the “right talent,” Ford is increasing its presence and partnerships at universities, officials said. The company has launched an all-new recruiting campaign with a large social media element titled “The Distance Between You and an Amazing Career Has Never Been Shorter.” The campaign encourages candidates to bring their talents to Ford and contribute to serving customers through ingenious solutions.

Ford plans to recruit for the positions by expanding its use of social media to reach new, technology-savvy workers, including such sites as Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest and LinkedIn.

"We want to reach more audiences and be more contemporary," Fields said. “It’s not just what you bring, it’s how you bring it because Ford is not just about what we do, it’s about how we do it.

Felicia FieldsFord

“So, we’re looking for people who are really going to adopt our One Ford behaviors and get excited about our plan.”

The salaried positions are in addition to company’s goal to create 12,000 hourly jobs in the U.S. by 2015, as part of its negotiations with the United Auto Workers in 2011. Ford has reached 75 percent of its goal thanks to announcements like 2,000 hourly employees at its Kansas City Assembly Plant and a new second shift with 1,200 new employees at its Flat Rock Assembly.

Fields said the lack of qualified candidates also extends to the hourly employees.

“We need more partnerships with universities, more partnerships with high schools to really get this workforce of the future; and to get the pipeline ready so that we continue to have more people with the types of skills we need on both the hourly and salaried side.”

Ford officials said all of the positions for Flat Rock are filled, but positions are still open at the Kansas City facility.

The so called "skills gap," or lack of a qualified workforce for automotive/manufacturing, isn't necessarily new. Officials say with the advancements in technology, companies have to not only get new people into the door, but continually train their current employees who may have been doing the same job for decades.

"There’s a very significant challenge right now in terms of the technology outpacing our people," SME Director of Professional Development Jeannine Kunz told MLive Monday during an interview. "The skills that are being required nowadays are very, very different."

SME is a nonprofit organization that offers dozens of programs for manufacturing employees and companies, including helping employers find or train employees for certain positions.

Kunz said the more than 80-year-old organization in recent years launched Tooling U-SME, a program that works with schools and companies throughout Michigan and the country to train the next generation of manufacturing professional – including STEM education in high schools and colleges.